Arakan

Arakan is a historic coastal country in Southeast Asia. Arakan was an independent kingdom for most of its history. It was also ruled by Indian kingdoms and Burmese Empires. Today, the territory forms the Rakhine State in Myanmar. The region is bordered by the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region from rest of Burma and once made Arakan accessible only by sea. Arakan has been the homeland of a multiethnic religiously diverse population, including Tibeto-Burman Arakanese Buddhists and Indo-Aryan Arakanese Indian Muslims and Hindus.

The Arabs traded with Arakan for two millennia. During the Age of Discovery, Arakan caught the interest of the Dutch East India Company and the Portuguese Empire. Arakan became a center of piracy and other areas of commerce. Arakan became one of the divisions of British India and later British Burma. Arakan Division was once a leading rice exporter. During the Second World War, the region was occupied by Imperial Japan. After Burmese independence, the renamed territory has seen ethnic conflict.